I will admit I am not an expert on the economy, but what I do have is common sense. I will also admit that after almost 8 years of living in hell under bush, I am not extremely optimistic that things will be able to be fixed so easily....
Follow me below for more...
After reading this diary I was feeling somewhat optimistic that one of the biggest problems we face; our totally screwed up health care system, could be fixed...., that was until I got into a health care discussion with a woman who is attending the same job-training class as me.
This woman was a typical republican. She was dead-set against any sort of government run health care system. Period.
I tried appealing to her sense of humanity, but nothing. I tried my favourite tactic of asking her if she was "pro-life", which of course she was because she's a typical republican. I asked her if she thought that people dying because they don't or didn't have health care coverage was something that was about life? She of course didn't know what to say to that, so she tried the usual lies and scare tactics that have been spread about government run health care for decades....it costs too much (lie; see the diary I linked to above), that it would raise every one's taxes; I countered with telling her the all the money that has been spent on bush's wars would of been plenty to have started a government run health care system...etc....you know all their agruments as well as I do.
What really made me lose some of my earlier optimism was just this; how can you change the system when there are so many selfish and greedy people out there who don't give a rat's ass if someone else is suffering because they don't have health coverage? After my fruitless discussion with that woman, I started to realize that people just don't really care unless it affects them personally. They don't want to give up what they have to help someone else. It's sad, but it's true. You add in the years of republican spin brain-washing, and just how the hell do you reach these people?
If the new politics is to work together, then how do you work together on an issue that democrats and republicans differ so strongly on? I have some hopes that Obama can change things, but I really think it's going to take some real boldness and courage to change the health care system to something that leaves NO ONE out.
This lead me to thinking about the economy as a whole, and not just the U.S.'s economy, but the world's economy....
My own governor (Jennifer Granholm of Michigan) said this past weekend on the local TV news, "that the reason the "Big 3" auto companies cannot compete with the foreign car companies is because they (the foreign car co's) don't have to provide health care coverage for their workers, because it's covered by their governments."(I tried to find a link to the quote, but I am clueless when it comes to searching on the internet). Makes sense, doesn't it?
Until our health care system is just as fair as every other country we are trying to compete with, we cannot make it.
The health care problem is not only a huge part of our economic crisis, but it could also be the solution if anyone is brave enough to make some REAL changes.
Until then, I still think we are fucked.
A p.s. I just got done reading nyceve's
diary, and I am not feeling too optimistic that we can get "un-fucked" anytime soon.
(BIG SIGH...)